Claws
by conquistadors
Summary: " Things we lose have a certain way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect. " -J.K Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - maybe, just maybe the feeling of love would come back to her


[First Draft]

A normal person's alarm clock would either be an annoying, ear-piercing screech from the clock itself or some ringtone from their phone. Mine instead was the sounds of explosions in Devil's Pit, the crummiest, most crime-ridden part of our glorious city of Hecate, and that unfortunately didn't have a snooze button. My eyes flicked open to see bright red alarm lights flickering throughout my home. It didn't surprise me, instead it was occurrence that happened often. I shoved off my covers and groggily walked over to my closet and threw the doors open. Rubbing my eyes, I felt around for the button I needed, what time was it anyways? Finally, I felt the familiar cool, round metal surface of the button and pressed down.

The middle section of the back wall slid back to reveal a set of doors, which as soon as I stepped towards them flung open. Even though I'd gotten used to the doors, it still made me jump a little. If I hadn't been awake before, I was now. I stepped into the doorway and ducked down into the elevator. Well, actually, it wasn't much of an elevator, my head just barely brushed against the ceiling of the thing. The doors slid closed and the 'elevator' began it's descent. Another thing about this elevator was strange, it went probably ten times faster than a normal one. I had to push myself into a corner and hold my hands against the wall to keep upright. It came to lurching, violent and sudden stop. I was thrown forward slightly and I landed on my rear-end not too softly. Pain bruised my skin momentarily and then it left leaving a small, light pulsing ache.

The doors slid open once again. Now it revealed an open space with all sorts of different computer screens and physical equipment. Normally a person would either choose between brain or brawn, mind or body, but my mentor had taught me differently. Not only did we have to be a peak physical ability, but also peak mental ability. Why, she had asked, did we have to choose one over the other when were gifted with both? They were wise words. Except those words caused me much pain and stress. Ever since I had arrived in her care there was never a moment when I wasn't training to become my best. Every battle is lesson, was what she often repeated to me, and under my breath I would reply, every lesson is a battle. Then we would both have a good chuckle about it and then once again I was thrown back into rigorous training.

That training had left me with who I am today, a super-powered girl who put her powers to use under the watchful eye of her mentor, Olympic athlete, Vicenta De Cordova. Otherwise known as the werewolf woman, Fenrir, who prowled the streets of Hecate fighting crime. Her family came from a line of famous Olympic athletes, who all also happened to be werewolves. No, they weren't actual werewolves, it was some genetic mutation that was passed down through her family's bloodline. Vic, which is what I called Vicenta, Mom never seemed to fit her, tried to explain the science behind it. She lost me not even halfway through her explanation, I hate science and I have never taken the time to try and understand it. Probably why I'm failing Chemistry right now.

Vic stood there in front of the main computer frame typing away speedily, her hands a whirlwind of tan skin, russet fur, and sharp, pointy claws. She barely even looked up from her typing to take a glance at me. "You're still wearing your pajamas." Vic paused for a moment,"Hello Kitty, excellent choice."

I flushed,"Where's my suit?"

Vic pointed one long clawed finger towards a glass case which inside held my spandex suit on metal mannequin. It was nothing too fancy, just a pair of black pants and a silver long sleeved shirt with with three long black stripes, that resembled claw marks, going down the front. There where a pair of dark grey boots to go along with it and a light ice blue mask. I slipped everything on quickly and laced up my boots. Before returning over to Vic I threw my pajamas over the mannequin. I didn't have anything to tie up my hair with so I left it in it's early morning glory, a complete and total mess.

"So what's all this raucous about?", I asked walking over to Vic and leaning against one of the monitors.

Vic's eye twitched,"Don't lean against the monitors, their expensive and I have no plans to buy a new one." I stepped away from the monitor and tapped my foot waiting for an answer.

"There's been a series of explosions throughout Devil's Pit. The cause is Angus Blais, otherwise known as Arsonist. He's been blowing up possible competition in the weapons industry," Vic turned away from the computer and walked over to the garage doors on the far side of the room. She lifted up one of the doors to reveal two motorcycles. One was a pitch black and the other a scarlet red. She threw me a pair of keys and jumped on the red one.

"You're...you're letting me drive a motorcycle."

Vic scoffed,"And? Ramona you're seventeen, you know how to drive a car. It shouldn't be such a big deal to drive a motorcycle."

But it was kind of a big deal. Vic rarely ever let me have anything new, never let me deal with something that required responsibility. I had to admit, I was a bit of a reckless, take too many risks kind of girl. Too many times had I nearly killed myself, well not really, but it still terrified me. I took the keys and twirled them in my hands with fascination. Vic only let me drive her car, and even then it was limited.

"Coming?"

I nodded. The motorcycle gleamed and I nearly leaped onto the seat. It was plush and leather and extremely comfortable. I shoved the keys into the ignition and turned them. The engine roared and I jumped a little, then I grinned, this was great. I pushed down on the pedal and it thrusted forward. Vic followed straight behind, but quickly surpassed my clumsy driving. We followed a tunnel that went up into the city. The motorcycles seemed to leap up into the night sky as we flew out onto the city streets.

I fumbled a bit the gears, pedals, and such for awhile as we made our to our destination, it was a warehouse on the GPS screen on the bike, represented by a red blip on the screen. Finally, I got the hang of it. I started speeding happily through the streets making fast, sharp turns and even attempted a wheely. It was fun and exhilarating, I felt free. The wind blew in my hair and threatened to mess it up even more, but I didn't care, the cool night air felt absolutely amazing. I gave a whoop and increased speed until I was sure I had broken the speed limit. Like I was definitely driving way faster than the fastest speed allowed. Instead of feeling guilty, I felt excited and giddy.

Eventually smoke tickled my nose and I felt a burning sensation enter my nostrils. I started coughing, there was so much smoke and it was all coming from one warehouse. I had to stop the motorcycle abruptly and nearly fell of. The tires skidded against the concrete. I slid off the leather seat and placed my feet on the ground feeling a little unsure and dizzy from my joy-ride. Vic parked her bike right next to mine and gave me a stern look, I could already tell that she regretted letting me use the motorcycle.

"I'll enter through the main door, and you go through the back, see if there's any survivors and try and get some info out of the them. I want to try and understand why Arsonist did this, other than having a psychotic break."

I gave a terse nod. Then, I sprang forward and made my way to the back of the building. The smoke burned my eyes, making them tear up a bit, and my lungs, but I fought through it. And with my unique abilities it was easier for me to fight the pain. Finally, the steely grey swirling cloud of smoke cleared a bit as I swatted it away with my hands. It was only effective for a moment, but that moment was enough for me to be able to identify where the back entrance was.

I jogged lightly to the two big steel doors that stood in the way of me getting into the warehouse. Smoke continued to sneak through the crevices of the doorway, and I had to cover my mouth and nose to prevent it from making it even more difficult to breath. Using my other available arm I grabbed onto the rather large handle that opened the left door. Searing hot pain burned through my hand, yet I kept pulling at the door until it gave way and there was an opening large enough for me to squeeze through.

Once inside the building I barely had time to assess what had happened to my hand. Other than the fact that I had to focus on the dodging the flames that closed in on me, the sweltering and burned skin of my palm had already began to stitch itself back together, until the only mark that was left looked more like that one of a rug burn than a serious injury. I flexed my knuckles for a hot second to make sure I'd be able to use it if a fight arose. These kind of checks weren't really necessary, but it was reassuring to make sure that the skin was there, in one piece, and I wasn't hallucinating.

My focus returned to the inferno that surrounded me. The bright, orange, red, and yellow flames and became so close they were now almost licking my boots. I stepped back wiping the newly formed sweat away from my brow. Flames seem to be everywhere, consuming everyone and everything. I saw a form lumped up against the wall and leaped gracefully across the flames, my boots just barely escaping the flames touch once again, that blocked me from the person. I landed precariously on my feet on the stone floor. Swiftly, I regained my footing.

I walked over to the person and grabbed their shoulder making their face, face mine. I regretted doing so. Bile rose up in the back of my throat as I looked at what had happened to the man. His entire face was badly burnt, his cracked skin blistering and bleeding in a mixture of black and red. That wasn't the worst part. It was his eyes that sickened me most. They were sunken into his skull seeing as most of his skin tissue had been burned away, and they were blood-shot beyond belief. Not to mention they had the glossed over look that most dead people had in their eyes that made them look like marbles. Still that wasn't the only part. His eyes seemed to be stuck permanently in this look of pure terror. I guess I would be too, if I was realized I was being burned alive. Shivering, I stepped away and continued my search for survivors.

The remotely intact bodies I found were dead and resembled the first body I had found, some were worse and some were less worse. I was panting and hacking by the time I found my twelfth body, the heat and smoke were starting to get to me. Every once in awhile I would accidentally let me get myself burned, but like always the pain only lasted a moment before fading away.

A loud roaring sound filled the warehouse as one of the machines exploded into fire. I immediately fell to the floor, instinctively, and covered my head. A piece of hot metal had cut into my cheek, I hoped it wasn't the cheek with my scar. I reached up and touched the cheek, it wasn't the one with my scar, thank god. I was also pretty sure the almost unbearable pain coming from my calfs were from some serious burns. There was more fire surrounding me, and even with my amazing healing powers we had never learned the limit to them. It was a possibility that even after I was reduced to a state like the bodies I found I could heal back to normal, but I didn't know for sure and I wasn't keen on finding out. I leaped to my feet, hissing as my legs were still in a bit of pain. The scorching flames had reached my ankles by then and I also knew then that I had to find Vic and get the hell out of here.

While I was sprinting through the the warehouse trying to locate where Vic was, I thought about how stunning the fire and it's flames looked. They were tantalizing in a way, so magnificent, but yet untouchable. Well, not completely untouchable. However, I was reckless, not an idiot and knew you don't touch fire no matter how gorgeous it manages to look. The fire could no longer distract me and so I focused all of my thoughts onto finding Vic.

Finally I found her standing over one of the many burnt bodies. She was checking the person's pulse. I peered over her shoulder to see it was a young man, maybe a year or two older than myself. His burns didn't look as severe as the others. "Is he alive?", I whispered.

Vic nodded,"He has a pulse. I'm not sure how long he'll make it though, and we need him to survive. He's the only one I found alive, or at least the only one who has a chance of making it out alive. I'm assuming you didn't have much better luck?"

I nodded. Vic frowned,"Then help me get him out of here."

She threw one of his arms around her shoulder. I did the same, although it was a bit awkward, since I was significantly smaller than the both of them. We dodged the fire and the falling apart machines, until finally we reached a window that had been blown open by an explosion. It looked dangerous to try and climb through, with the remains of the glass sticking out like shark teeth. Vic seemed not in the least bothered by the jagged daggers of glass and picked up the young man and carried him like a small child on her back, with his arms wrapped around her neck precariously. She climbed up the wall until she finally reached the ledge. I'd thought my mentor was slightly insane before, but now I was pretty sure there was something wrong with her thinking cap. Another explosion sounded behind me and I ducked onto the ground my hands flying up to protect my head.

I soon realized that the window was the only escape. I followed Vic's example. I jumped onto one of the conveyor belts and tried to jump and reach the ledge, but I couldn't go high enough. Vic looked down at me with a dissatisfied look, and I glared back at her. She wanted me to use them. I hadn't used my claws since an incident a couple weeks ago, and I no longer trusted myself to use them. But it was either use them or figure out if I can really survive a burning inferno that could be mistaken for hell. I growled, sounding almost like a feral animal. A pulsing pain echoed in my fists, they wanted out, it'd been uncomfortable keeping them cooped up in there. There was a flash of shining silver and three claws slid out of my knuckles. I reared back and drove them into the wall. When I sure it provided strong hand-hold, I followed suit with my other hand, three more identical claws slid out flashing against fire. Using the claws I pulled them in and out of the wall making my upwards towards the ledge.

I bit my lip, not stopping until I tasted the coppery substance that was my blood. No matter how many times I used the claws that had been "gifted" to me they hurt, when they were out and when they were in. It was unnatural how they slid out of my skin and rubbed against my skin when they were retracted. After climbing for what seemed like hours, which in reality was a little under two minutes, I was a little bit below the ledge. I let one hand stay dug into the wall and let the other hand go. With a powerful flip I flew upward and let the hand go and landed on the ledge. My claws retracted rather quickly into my hands.

Vic shook her head,"Stop acting so fearful of yourself, it will only lead to more pain and mistakes. Plus you claws help get the job done easier."

With that she jumped out the window landing on her feet like a cat. I followed sticking a less graceful landing and getting a face full of dirt. I looked down to see my ankle had been bent at an odd angle, only to snap back into place. Maybe Vic was right. Maybe I should just trust myself, and my powers, a bit more.

The drive home was long and torturous definitely not as fun as the first time. When we got back I trudged into my room and threw off my costume. I took a nice warm shower to loosen up my sore muscles and promptly scrubbed every spec of soot and dirt from my body. I felt refreshed after the shower and it was a complete relief when I flopped down onto my bed. I cuddled up into my pillow and fell asleep savoring the few hours of sleep I had left.


End file.
